Welcome to TNW Basics, a collection of tips, guides, and advice on how to easily get the most out of your gadgets, apps, and other stuff. There’s no school like the old school, and that goes for game consoles as well. Even with the rise of retro consoles like the SNES Classic or the PlayStation Classic, there’s…
There’s a (supposed) problem with blockchain: it’s too resource-intensive, so Amazon Web Services (AWS) has backed a $100,000 maths competition to “forever change” the technology. Given 1024-bit input x, compute the verifiable delay function ‘h=x^(2^t) mod N’ as fast as possible. t=2^30 N=124066695684124741398798927404814432744698427125735684128131855064976895337309138910015071214657674309443149407457493434579063840841220334555160125016331040933690674569571217337630239191517205721310197608387239846364360850220896772964978569683229449266819903414117058030106528073928633017118689826625594484331 If it helps, the puzzle above relates specifically to Verifiable Delay Functions…
Dogecoin has been in development since 2013. Its original creators, Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer, wanted to create a cryptocurrency that wasn’t as stuffy or boring as Bitcoin. They wanted to create a digital coin that was fun, in the hope that it would appeal to a much broader audience than conventional cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.…
Facebook has removed hundreds of fake accounts and pages associated with individuals connected to the Saudi Arabian government as part of its ongoing fight to curtail coordinated inauthentic behavior on the platform. To that effect, the social network said it had taken down 217 accounts, 144 pages, five Facebook groups, and 31 Instagram accounts that were…
Activision today confirmed that the upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare will have crossplay on all of its consoles, from launch. It’s a watershed moment for the people who’ve been pushing for more crossplay in mainstream games — and, with a game this popular paving the way, it’ll likely only become more common now. To be…
A trio of researchers from the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) recently developed an eyes-free, AI-powered, invisible keyboard interface that positions itself based on where you choose to set your hands when you’re ready to type. Billions of dollars worth of R&D and marketing research go into building better peripherals every year.…
Sometimes, like a soothsayer of shittiness, you know something is terrible before you even see it. And one of those things is Microsoft’s new advert for its Surface 2 laptop. In this… opus, a man literally called Mac (short for Mackenzie) Book talks bollocks about why Microsoft’s machine is superior to its Apple counterpart. I…
Welcome to CHEAP, our series about things that are good, but most of all, cheap. CHEAP! One of the disadvantages of owning a MacBook Air and getting into street photography in my free time is that I’m always short on storage space. In fact, the situation is so bad I couldn’t properly function without some…
A study has shone a light on how many gamers have experienced harassment and hate while playing online games — and it’s a staggeringly high number. Still, it’s encouraging to see the nastiness has been balanced (at least to a degree) by positive interactions, such as burgeoning friendships and finding accepting communities. The study, which was…
Nintendo and Sony this week posted sales figures for the Switch and the PlayStation 4, respectively — and the two consoles are cleaning house. If you’re looking for a reason why these two consoles have rocketed to the top so quickly, you can probably put it down to both consoles‘ sterling lineup of exclusives. Sony‘s…
